Essay on First Group Plc

First Group Plc is a public transport company operating in many countries of the world, including the UK, Ireland, Sweden, Denmark, Canada and the USA. The company operates internationally but still First Group Plc attempts to meet British governance norms and standards established in terms of the 2010 UK Corporate Governance Code because the UK is the major market of the company and the company cannot lose this market. Today, First Group Plc has a fleet of about 9,000 buses operating in the major cities of the UK as well as other countries mentioned above. Traditionally, the UK was the major market for First Group Plc and today the role of the UK market is still determinant in the further development of the company.

In actuality, First Group Plc attempts to optimize its governance and to develop effective approaches to business but changes in the marketing strategy of the company inevitably raise the problem of the compliance of the corporate governance of First Group Plc with the 2010 UK Corporate Governance Code. The problem is that the company has to maintain diversity and respect key legal norms established by the UK legislation in regard to the corporate governance. The company attempts to reach positive outcomes in its marketing performance.

Objectives and operating environment

The strategic objective of First Group Plc is to expand its business internationally and to take the leading position in the public transport market. The company attempts to provide customers with services of the high quality. The company attempts to optimize its government to increase the effectiveness of decision-making process. On the other hand, the company attempts to save costs using effective governance schemes. At the same time, First Group Plc respects basic democratic principles and rules and legal norms. Hence, the company provides the large access of professionals with diverse cultural background to the corporate governance. However, as the company traditionally operated in the UK, the top executives of First Group Plc comprise professionals from the UK mainly, while other countries, where the company operates remain under-represented.

Compliance and disclosure in governance principles under the framework of the 2010 UK Corporate Governance Code

In actuality, the company attempts to maintain effective marketing performance, but the company has to take into consideration the 2010 UK Corporate Governance Code because changes that may occur in the company in the course of its international market expansion should not come into clashes with the UK legislation. In this regard, the 2010 UK Corporate Governance Code defines the relationship between the principal and the agent to perform some services on their behalf, but the company should be aware that their goals may be different (Solomon, 2010). In other words, the difference in goals of top executives and employees may lead to conflict. The corporate governance should minimize the risk of conflicts and settle disputes between parties effectively. The 2010 UK Corporate Governance Code helps to solve these problems regulating the relationship between principals and agents and setting standards and basic norms of the corporate governance in the UK.